Christmas Lights
by 1234BlueLagoon
Summary: It's really dark and there are no lights on at Uncle Scrooge's house. But it's Christmas...


_I just love it when someone reviews an old story I wrote. It's like a jewel that someone gives me for something I did a long time ago, and it both surprises and delights me. One Guest recently reviewed an old Christmas story I wrote for another fandom, and I thought it would be nice to write another Christmas story on Christmas again. So thank you Guest, for the inspiration. :)_

STORY

The house was dark. As in, pitch black. There were absolutely no lights on, inside or out. This was a bad sign because he was supposed to be home, and Uncle Donald had already dropped us off and was long gone by now. All of the houses we passed by on the way here were practically on fire with Christmas lights, and the last five houses apparently had a Christmas light war going on, but for some reason none of those lights would shine farther than a foot down Uncle Scrooge's driveway.

I stepped up to the door and looked at my brothers before ringing the doorbell. If no one answered, would we have to walk all the home by ourselves?

The door opened.

"Boys!" Uncle Scrooge said cheerily, beckoning us into the dark behind him, "Come on in, come on in! Merry Christmas! Your uncle Donald found his way here, I see. Left already, did he?"

"Yeah," Louie said, deciding to be the first one to walk into the house, "Uncle Scrooge, are your lights broken?"

"Hm? Broken? Certainly not!" Uncle Scrooge said, flipping a switch behind the door. The chandelier on the hallway ceiling instantly lit up, suddenly turning the dark and forboding hallway back into his familiar one. "Now, who wants some hot chocolate?"

We walked down the hallway into the kitchen, and after Uncle Scrooge turned on the kitchen lights he turned off the hallway light.

"Aaaah, what a lovely Christmas Eve!" He said as he took a large pot off the stovetop and began pouring the hot chocolate into some nearby mugs.

"Uncle Scrooge, where's your Christmas tree?" Dewey asked.

"And don't you have Christmas lights?" Louie asked.

"All the neighbors have their lights up," I said as Uncle Scrooge handed me a warm mug filled almost to the brim.

"The way I see it," Uncle Scrooge said, handing out mugs to my brothers, "Lights aren't necessary."

"But you've got to have lights!" Louie said, "Uncle Donald put them out all over the house even though we weren't going to be there-almost cost him a few broken bones when he got to the roof, but hey, at least he got them up."

"I admit it's nice to see what other people do with their lights, but I see no reason to put them up myself." Uncle Scrooge said.

"Well, since we're here this Christmas, we can put them up for you." I said, sipping my drink.

"That's very nice of you boys, but-"

"What about the tree? Does it have lights?" Dewey interrupted.

"I haven't got the tree yet," Uncle Scrooge admitted, "I was hoping you boys could help me pick it out."

That perked us all up. Tree hunting was one of our favorite Christmas traditions. Every year Uncle Donald would refuse to put up the artificial tree we've somehow always had up in the attic, and instead we'd all drive over to some cheap tree lot. There Uncle Donald would always manage to pick out a tree taller than our living room ceiling and haggle for the price, but always end up paying way too much for it. I know that sounds terrible, but it was always really entertaining somehow.

Uncle Scrooge must have noticed how excited we were, so he continued.

"Then boys, if you're ready, get your boots on and grab a flashlight! Huey, go into the living room and get the ax by the fireplace. Louie, grab the sled by the back door. We might need it to bring the tree back up the mountain."

"Wait, we're chopping it down ourselves?" Louie asked.

"Of course w'are. Come on, lads! There'll be more hot chocolate when we get back!"

So there we were, trodding through the dark in the cold snow on the back side of Scrooge's mansion, trying to keep as warm a possible. We had to pick out a tree-Uncle Scrooge said height didn't really matter-and it wasn't until we were twenty minutes into the woods before we found the right one. Then Uncle Scrooge thought it would be a great learning experience for us if he made _us_ chop it down. With minimal help from him of course, aside from the occasional 'you're doing great work, lads!' and 'that's the spirit!' It took us a while to get it done, and by the time we had dragged the tree all the way back to the house we were about ready to collapse in the back hallway.

Uncle Scrooge told us to warm up in the kitchen, and then he single-handedly grabbed the tree and took off with it, presumably to set it up in the living room or something.

That left us boys alone in the kitchen for a while. Thankfully, there was still hot chocolate, and it was still hot.

"So, how are we going to set up lights for Uncle Scrooge?" Louie asked, "I don't think he has any, so can we convince him to buy some or should we buy them ourselves?"

"Maybe we can get him to buy them," I said, "I would really like to decorate this place. It could be the best house in the neighborhood if only we could get the lights up!"

"Forget the neighborhood, this place would be the best in the country!" Dewey said.

"Forget the country," Louie said, "If we could decorate this place, it'll be the best, brightest and biggest Christmas house in the whole world!"

Too bad our uncle is such a skinflint, though. There was no way he would pay to have that many lights decorating his house. We all knew it, as much as we wished otherwise.

"So, I guess we'll have to buy the lights ourselves." Dewey said.

"But how are we going to get them?"

"Get what?" Uncle Scrooge asked, coming into the kitchen. He looked happy, his cheeks red from the cold.

At that moment, we all made a triplet decision.

"We need to go to the store," I said.

"We want to buy a gift for someone." Dewey said.

"A surprise gift." Louie added.

"Can you take us there?" I asked.

Uncle Scrooge looked confused, but nodded anyway. "Aye, I'll take ya to the store. Fair warning, though-it tends to be a bit busy there on Christmas Eve."

The problem was, it was more than a bit busy when we finally got to the store. People were running around all over the place, buying toys and screaming and crying. It was a little creepy that adults were crying over toys, though.

"Alright boys, we got this." I said, taking charge, "Uncle Scrooge is only going to wait outside for fifteen minutes, so we have to hurry. Louie, get the dangly icicle lights. Dewey, get the colored lights. I'm going to grab the projector lights and if any of us sees a really good decoration, grab it. Once we have everything we'll see if we can buy it with our allowance. Ready, set, go!"

We all scrambled around the store, but the decorations area was mostly cleared out by the time we got there. In the end the only things we could find were a small string of clear lights, and this really cool multi-colored snowman blowup that had its own laser light show and blasted fake snow. We could only afford the small string of clear lights though, so that's the one we ended up buying.

Even though we had only one item, the guy in front of us was buying 35 things in the 10 items or less checkout counter, so we had to wait a long time before we could check out. By the time we got outside, Uncle Scrooge had turned off the car and it was just as cold inside the limo as it was outside.

"That's all you got? That small bag?" He asked.

"Yes." Louie said.

"Thanks for taking us, Uncle Scrooge." I told him as we started heading home. I think the security officer was relieved to see us go-probably because the limo had taken up two spots in the parking lot.

As soon as we got home, we jumped out of the car and ran inside.

"Let's put it on the tree!" Dewey said.

"Put what on the tree?" Uncle Scrooge asked.

"These!" Louie said, pulling the small string of lights out of the shopping bag.

"Surprise! We got these for you, since you don't have any." I said.

"Um, I appreciate the thought boys, but we can't put those on the tree."

"Huh? Why not?" I asked.

"It's because you're trying not to spend money on the electricity, isn't it." Louie said.

"That's not it," Uncle Scrooge said, "Go into the living room and have a look."

We practically ran into the living room and turned on the light. There was the tree we picked out, all set up in the center of the room, and there were things on its branches. Kinda like sticks pointing upwards...

"Are those candles?" I asked.

"That they are!" Uncle Scrooge said, "I was planning to light them after dinner, but I suppose I can start now."

"Wait, why did you put candles on the tree?" Louie asked.

"What do you think they did before electricity was invented?" Uncle Scrooge asked, pulling out a ladder from the corner of the room, "This is the way I have celebrated Christmas ever since I could afford an ax ta chop down me own tree."

We all waited in silence while Uncle Scrooge lit the candles. Finally he was done, and he carefully put the ladder away.

"There!" He said, "Looks beautiful, doesn't she? Candles really are the perfect way ta celebrate a birthday."

"So, is that why you don't decorate your house for Christmas? Because you want to have Christmas the same way you did in the past?"

"Bless me bagpipes, no!" Uncle Scrooge said, "That's not it at all. If I light up this mansion the same way as the neighbors down the hill, do you know how much it would-"

"I knew it, it was all about the money!" Dewey said.

"No! You've got it all wrong." Uncle Scrooge said, "Christmas is me favorite holiday. But if I lit up the house, the electric company wouldn't be able ta handle it. There'd be another overload, and the entire neighborhood would go dark. So instead of that happening, I keep a quiet Christmas, spend the same on my electric bill as usual, and have a deal with the electric company to power up some other people's houses instead of me own for the month."

We were all silent for half a minute. "Hang on a second," I said, "Are you saying that you...give away your electricity?"

"To the poor?" Dewey asked.

Uncle Scrooge huffed, acted like he hadn't heard us, and walked out of the room.

"I guess we don't really _need_ to put up these Christmas lights," Louie said, setting down the small bundle of string.

"Anyone want to help me make cookies? If ya help, I'll let you eat some before dinner!" Uncle Scrooge called out, and so we raced after him into the kitchen.

I made sure to turn the light off behind me.

THE END


End file.
